How Long Does A Short Sale Take?

The million dollar question.

The most common question I'm asked regarding a short sale is "how long will this take?"  Unfortunately, that's difficult and almost impossible to accurately pinpoint .  

There are so many factors that affect the short sale process, and here are a few that will determine how long it will take from start to close.

1. Document preparation: The banks will require you to provide bank statements, pay stubs, etc., and how quickly you can gather these documents will affect the timelines.  If I receive your documents quickly, the bank in turn will receive and process them faster.
2. The marketing process: Are buyers allowed adequate access? If your home is difficult to show, offers will not come. No offer means no short sale.
3. Backlog of your bank: If your lender has too many files in their pipeline, their negotiators get bogged down with work and turn times slow down considerably.

While sellers' preferred time frames vary considerably, banks are trying their best to get their short sales processed and closed.  Stalling for too long, or having an unresponsive bank can put you in danger of foreclosing, and the ramifications of foreclosure are often considerably more negative than those of a short sale.  

In general, I'm seeing the approval process take about 60-90 days.  This is the time form when we submit the complete short sale package (your financial paperwork & an offer) to receiving the approval letter from your bank.   

Once we have the approval letter from your bank, we open escrow.  Escrow generally takes an additional 30 days.

If you are considering a short sale, NOW is the time to act.  As of right now, the deadline to apply for a HAFA short sale (with it's $10,000 closing incentive) is 12/31/2016, so CALL US TODAY!

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